It’s been exactly two months since I started my big “30 Before 30” challenge, so I thought it was time for an update on my progress!

I like to be proactive with my projects because procrastination stresses me the heck out, but I haven’t been able to cross too many things off of my list just yet. It was giving me a little bit of anxiety for a little bit…30 things in 12 months is at least 2.5 items per month!! That means I should be up to 5 by now!!

Some of the things on the list I’ve decided to wait and do during the winter. I inevitably get bored during the slow winter months (which just so happen to be when my work is a lot slower too!) and am always looking for things to do, but the list is full of things I can do in the wintertime!

Here’s a little recap of what I’ve done so far:

#13 Eat a soft-shell crab

One evening after an outdoor concert here in town where you can bring your own bottles of wine, we decided to head to one of our favorite seafood restaurants to check this one off the list. I went for the soft-shell crab sandwich since it was my first time.

Honestly, I think these are maybe an acquired taste. I didn’t hate it….and I normally love anything having to do with crabs (steamed blue crabs are one of my top five favorite foods!) but maybe it was the fact that you can literally see the whole body of the animal AND everything I have been taught about crabs in the past is that you DON’T eat the shell was so ingrained in my brain, but I just felt like it was a meh experience. Will I have one again? Probably. Did I love it? Not really.

#19 Keg Stand

HA. So, there are no photos of this (although there is go-pro footage somewhere, courtesy of my loving husband…) and that’s probably for good reason. This entire item on the list is a really good example of how I live my life….when I want to do something, I believe in just going after it with gusto, even if it may happen in a somewhat random or unconventional way. I wanted to do a keg stand (for what stupid reason, I can’t even remember!) and I did it!

I say it happened kind of randomly or unconventionally because, normally people do keg stands at parties, right? Labor day weekend was my last weekend off until November 12, so I felt like if we were going to do it, it should happen before the weather gets too awful. It turns out when you plan a last minute labor day weekend party, most of your friends already have plans. I didn’t let that stop me though, and went ahead with getting a 1/6 keg of Landshark (all that was left) from Total Wine. I was all pumped to do my keg stand in our backyard…that is, until we found out about the hurricane!

So, that’s pretty much how I came to do a keg stand in my living room with just my husband and a friend of ours. It wasn’t pretty, so I will spare you all of the foamy details. Afterward we went to a new local brewery, which was amazing, and salvaged what otherwise might have been a really weird evening. I’m excited that although the keg stand was not all that great of an experience in itself, it’s going to be a really fun story to have!

In progress:

#7 Send 30 handwritten letters

I’ve written about 7 letters and have sent 5. I’m trying to write and mail 5 at a time, so I’ve got a few more to write to get to 10! The hardest part seems to be finding people to write to, since 30 is a bigger number than I thought. If you’d like a letter, email me at katielovestoeatblog@gmail.com!

#27 Try 30 different donut placesSo far I’ve been to six! Here’s a list of where I’ve been.

Carpe Donut

Duck Donuts

Glazed Donuts

O's donuts

Dough Joe's

Sandy pony donuts

I plan to write a post with a mini review of each of these donut stops, so stay tuned for that!

#18 Start allergy immunization shots.I start this Monday! The doctor says these shots will also help with my dog allergy, which excites John, because he really wants a corgi and right now, I am sadly allergic.

#26 Get my DNA testedI sent out for my kit from 23andme the other day and it should come next week! It will take about 6-8 weeks from the time I send it out, so hopefully a little before Hawaii I’ll be able to cross that one of the list!

#3 Spartan/mud/warrior/rugged raceI’m running a Spartan Sprint on September 25th! Wish me luck! I have run a marathon and a half marathon before, but I'm really nervous about the Spartan because I don't have a ton of upper body strength. I'm excited though! It should be a fun challenge!

That’s about it for this update! Hopefully next time I’ll have a few more things to show for myself :)